If you're not moving any time soon, a chop saw will cut both metal and wood beautifully (ideally with two different blades). Your current drill should be fine for drilling steel as long as you use a step bit and plenty of lubricant. In terms of a welder, all my friends who have one (or more) say that a welder opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Craigslist is typically good for stuff like that.
Sounds like for the jobs I need to do, I mostly just need better drill bits and maybe a hand saw. For the plyo box, I'll just have Lowe's cut the plywood. That's just going to be easier than me trying to make strait 4' cuts by hand.
Everything else is just putting simple cuts in 2x4s. I don't even need to cut blocks equal lengths. A slight angle to a grind rail is nice.
And I'll keep an eye out for circular saws on CL.
My friend told me that cordless drills with dead battery's are how he expands his mallet collection.
+1 to buy tools on CL. Use them for an unlimited amount of time, resell them for the same price later.
This works for just about any household item.
I don't find I use my circular saws that much, but nothing really replaces them when they're needed. If it's just one project, let Lowe's do the cuts. The bonus is it'll be easier to get the plywood home.
A cordless drill should probably be good enough for drilling steel.
I have both corded and cordless, and, while the cordless gets the most work, I do like having the corded. I bought a large Porter Cable hammer drill a few years ago because I needed to put holes in concrete. Since then, it's been my thinset and grout mixer, my metal polisher, my occasional screwdriver, and yes, I've drilled holes. My cordless is small and lightweight, so my corded is big, heavy, bulky and strong.
I guess what I'm saying is consider buying with an eye to expanding what you can do. Don't just buy a middle of the road corded to supplement a middle of the road cordless. Get an impact driver, or a hammer drill, or something that does stuff your cordless can't.
I've been collecting tools for about 20 years now. If I wanted to do a thing, I bought the tool to do it because you never know if you'll need to do something similar and renting tools sucks. The result is that I have a sufficient collection of tools to run a modest contracting company and don't.
Airless paint sprayer? Yup, use it about once every 5 years.
Full sized drain machine? Ditto, but calling out Roto-rooter would cost more than I paid for it and I've used it twice.
Buy the tools.
I have an electric chainsaw sharpening tool.
I've never owned a chainsaw...
petegossett wrote: I have an electric chainsaw sharpening tool. I've never owned a chainsaw...
I have one as well. And three chainsaws. For my 1/4 acre which has 9 trees on it, and I don't have a fireplace.
As someone who has moved 7 times since I first started collecting tools at about 19 years old, there is certainly something to be said for tools that are easily portable.
I bought my first "big tool" a few weeks ago. A used (but not wobbly) Rigid 12" Sliding Dual Miter. I think I overpaid for it, but whatever. I'm building some hanging shelves and cutting 2x4 with a Skil/chop saw kinda blows.
I avoid a table saw simply because I don't very often need to rip down panels.
I keep telling myself I don't need a welder...but I really want one.
KyAllroad wrote:petegossett wrote: I have an electric chainsaw sharpening tool. I've never owned a chainsaw...I have one as well. And three chainsaws. For my 1/4 acre which has 9 trees on it, and I don't have a fireplace.
I probably should buy a chainsaw now that we're a block from the beach, but I'm worried a gas one would just get gummed up/dried out from lack of use between storms, and an electric one would probably be useless since the power would likely be out post-storm.
I'm in the "buy" group. But if you looked at my tool collection this would not be surprising.
I generally agree about cordless vs. corded. I use my 12V DeWalt cordless for 95% of drilling needs. However, when I need a corded drill, I figure it had better do the job, so the ones I have are about has heavy as you can get: a big 1/2" chuck DeWalt, a SDS Bosch Hammer-Drill (purchased mainly for the hammer function, but it will drill a 1/2" hole in concrete like a hot knife through butter), and finally a big right-angle drill for boring holes in joists to run electrical wiring or PEX tubing as well as turning big hole saws.
I have actually run into situations where the lighter weight of a cordless drill made it harder to do the job. I was using a 1/2" cordless right-angle drill with a 6" hole saw. It was going fine until the bit jambed and the torque ripped the drill out of my hands, spinning and clocking me in the chin. I was also on a ladder doing this and it nearly knocked me off. For whatever reason, the massiveness of my H-F geared R-A drill never has that problem.
petegossett wrote:KyAllroad wrote:I probably should buy a chainsaw now that we're a block from the beach, but I'm worried a gas one would just get gummed up/dried out from lack of use between storms, and an electric one would probably be useless since the power would likely be out post-storm.petegossett wrote: I have an electric chainsaw sharpening tool. I've never owned a chainsaw...I have one as well. And three chainsaws. For my 1/4 acre which has 9 trees on it, and I don't have a fireplace.
It took my Stihl 30 years sitting with gas in the tank sometimes for years on end before I finally had to replace a fuel line and clean the carb. The last 20 years of that was only 3 to 4 uses per year. Can't speak for more modern ones, but older ones are definitely built to last.
In reply to RevRico:
For that it's not the saw, it's the new gas. For occasional use equipment I use a fuel stabilizer, that seems to keep the gumminess at bay.
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